-The Economic Times When the country was growing at more than 8 per cent for about a decade, services and manufacturing were the darlings of policy-makers, investors and talking heads. Agriculture, a segment that employs nearly half the hundred crore population of the country, was hardly mentioned even in passing. This year, thanks to a poor monsoon, suddenly the farmers are the centre of India's growth story, or the lack of...
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Notifying Farming as an Essential Service: An Authoritarian Manoeuvre-SAHRDC
-Economic and Political Weekly The Government of India is considering a proposal to notify farming as an essential service. This is ostensibly to bring drought relief to farmers suffering from a weak monsoon - a laudable goal indeed. However, if farming is deemed an "essential service", farmers and farm workers could lose many of their political and civic rights because the government can then invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to...
More »Rise in Argentina’s maize exports to ease pressure in international food markets–UN
-The United Nations Argentina’s announcement that it would export an additional 2.75 million tonnes of maize this year will help ease tight international markets, the United Nations food agency said today, adding that while this is a welcome measure, countries must remain vigilante to avoid a global food crisis. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the announcement was made by Argentina’s Minister of Agriculture, Norberto Yauhar, who had just...
More »Micro irrigation answer to depleting ground water level: Sharad Pawar
-PTI Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said the ground water level in the country is decreasing and there is an urgent need to check this through encouraging micro irrigation. "The ground water table in the country has come down in the last few years and in order to check this we should work with technologies like drip and sprinkler irrigation, which minimises loss of water," Pawar said in his inaugural address at...
More »Government mulls setting minimum quantities for export of agri-commodities
-PTI To overcome inconsistencies in farm export-import policy, Food Minister K V Thomas today said the government is considering allowing a minimum level of quantity for export of select agri-commodities to help India become a stable player in the global market. "We are working on a mechanism to have a stable export-import policy on select agricultural commodities such as sugar, wheat and rice," Thomas said at the Kingsman 4th Indian Sugar Conference...
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